Luminescent Conjugated Oligothiophenes for Sensitive Fluorescent Assignment of Protein Inclusion Bodies
نویسندگان
چکیده
Small hydrophobic ligands identifying intracellular protein deposits are of great interest, as protein inclusion bodies are the pathological hallmark of several degenerative diseases. Here we report that fluorescent amyloid ligands, termed luminescent conjugated oligothiophenes (LCOs), rapidly and with high sensitivity detect protein inclusion bodies in skeletal muscle tissue from patients with sporadic inclusion body myositis (s-IBM). LCOs having a conjugated backbone of at least five thiophene units emitted strong fluorescence upon binding, and showed co-localization with proteins reported to accumulate in s-IBM protein inclusion bodies. Compared with conventional amyloid ligands, LCOs identified a larger fraction of immunopositive inclusion bodies. When the conjugated thiophene backbone was extended with terminal carboxyl groups, the LCO revealed striking spectral differences between distinct protein inclusion bodies. We conclude that 1) LCOs are sensitive, rapid and powerful tools for identifying protein inclusion bodies and 2) LCOs identify a wider range of protein inclusion bodies than conventional amyloid ligands.
منابع مشابه
Luminescent conjugated poly- and oligo-thiophenes: optical ligands for spectral assignment of a plethora of protein aggregates.
The deposition of protein aggregates in various parts of our body gives rise to several devastating diseases, and the development of probes for the selective detection of aggregated proteins is crucial to advance our understanding of the pathogenesis underlying these diseases. LCPs (luminescent conjugated polythiophenes) are fluorescent probes that bind selectively to protein aggregates. The co...
متن کاملThe Structural Basis for Optimal Performance of Oligothiophene-Based Fluorescent Amyloid Ligands: Conformational Flexibility is Essential for Spectral Assignment of a Diversity of Protein Aggregates
Protein misfolding diseases are characterized by deposition of protein aggregates, and optical ligands for molecular characterization of these disease-associated structures are important for understanding their potential role in the pathogenesis of the disease. Luminescent conjugated oligothiophenes (LCOs) have proven useful for optical identification of a broader subset of disease-associated p...
متن کاملSynthesis of a library of oligothiophenes and their utilization as fluorescent ligands for spectral assignment of protein aggregates.
Molecular probes for selective identification of protein aggregates are important to advance our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis underlying protein aggregation diseases. Here we report the chemical design of a library of anionic luminescent conjugated oligothiophenes (LCOs), which can be utilized as ligands for detection of protein aggregates. Certain molecular requirements were sho...
متن کاملFluorescent thiophene-based ligands for detection and characterization of disease-associated protein aggregates
In this thesis the unique optical properties of fluorescent ligands termed luminescent conjugated oligothiophenes (LCOs) have been used to study a variety of protein aggregates associated with human protein misfolding disease. This heterogeneous group of diseases contains well known and fatal members such as Alzheimer ́s and Huntington ́s disease and the development of sensitive tools for the det...
متن کامل